George Mathews (Georgia politician)
American politician (1739-1812)
George Mathews (August 30, 1739 – August 30, 1812) was an American soldier and politician from the U.S. states of Virginia and Georgia. He was a brevet brigadier general in the Continental Army, the 20th governor of Georgia, a U.S. representative from Georgia, and the leading participant in the Patriot War of East Florida.
Born in Augusta County in the Virginia Colony, Mathews was in early life a merchant and planter. As an officer in the colonial militia, he gained statewide fame for his role in the Battle of Point Pleasant of Dunmore's War. He was afterward elected to the House of Burgesses from Augusta County, but did not attend a session. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he served as colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. He and his entire regiment were captured on October 4, 1777, in the Battle of Germantown. Mathews spent the next four years as a prisoner of war, including two years on a British prison ship. He was brevetted brigadier general at the end of the war.
After the war, Mathews moved to the state of Georgia and was quickly elected governor of the state.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q887630. VIAF identifies the subject as 60628768. The Library of Congress control number is n88077571. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1739, 1812 and 1777.
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This entry incorporates text from “George Mathews (Georgia politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.